Congress opposes pink polling booths in Telangana

The Congress says it welcomes the initiatives taken to increase percentage of polling among women, but "everything should be done in a fair manner without letting any political party take advantage."

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Ashish Pandey

Hyderabad

October 23, 2018

UPDATED: October 23, 2018 21:52 IST

450 'pink booths' called Sakhi were set up in Karnataka in May. (Photo: DDChandanaNews/Twitter)

The Telangana Congress has objected to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) proposal to set up pink polling booths for women for the assembly elections on December 7.

"The ECI had set up pink polling booths for women with female staff during the Karnataka assembly elections. While this was acceptable in Karnataka, it cannot be here, in Telangana. Since TRS uses pink colour for its flags, banners and the entire campaign material, the election commission should not use the colour on women polling booths as this would go against the spirit of fair elections," Congress leader G Narayana Reddy said, adding the commission should not allow any symbols, signs, colour or text that might influence the voters.

Reddy, however, said the Congress welcomes the initiatives taken to increase the percentage of polling among women, but "everything should be done in a fair manner without letting any political party take advantage."

The Congress leader also ridiculed the claims made by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Ram Madhav of forming the next government in Telangana. "The BJP is a non-entity in Telangana," he said.

BJP president Amit Shah had, earlier, ruled out any alliance with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the coming assembly polls in the state and said the TRS owed an explanation to the people for imposing additional expenditure by going for early elections.

The Congress, in this regard, said both the BJP and the TRS worked together for the last four years and just before elections, they were "enacting the drama of rivalry". He further said that both -- BJP and TRS -- governments were corrupt and anti-people.